Featured in the Treasury West: Raspberries and Blueberries Bracelet

What a Day! I just found out my Raspberries and Blueberries bracelet has been featured in the Etsy Treasury West by Cait from Barefootweaver.



Check out her Etsy shop for lovely woven cuff bracelets and shawls in the most yummy colours. :-)

Earrings - Hoops, Black Cats, Lambs, Shells, and Heavenly Blues

I've been having fun with black plated hoops and other goodies I bought from Studio Sen on Etsy (materials for the first 3 pairs of earrings).

The first two pairs of earrings are mine... but I have more of the 'ingredient's available.

Going in Circles Earrings

The blackplated hoops are 2" (5omm) in diameter and adorned with a lovely hammered sterling hoop. The ear wires and head pin are also sterling silver.


I love the contrast between the smooth black matte hoops and the shiny textured sterling hoops. The black plated hoops are very filigree and look elegant against the silver.



Black Cat Earrings

The little black cats are made from mother of pearl and I love their cute little faces. They are surrounded by laser cut filigree hoops in the same smooth blackplating as the hoops above. The hoops are quite large (55mm) but because of the elegant filigree design also extremely light. The findings are all oxidised sterling silver.



Little Lamb Earrings

These are so cute - little mother of pearl lambs surrounded by green frosted Japanese seed beads (aka grass) on silver plated just over 1" (30mm) hoops. The headpin is sterling silver. These will either go in my Etsy shop or you can buy them directly now for £10.



Shell Circle Earrings

These are just sooooo stylish and elegant. A vintage brass shell with a lovely gingerbread patina hangs within a blackplated hoop. I've used blackplated ear wires for these as well. The headpin is oxidised brass. Available now or later from my Etsy shop for £12.



Heavenly Turquoise Earring Selection

My friend as me to make her some sterling earrings with the long oval design that I have used for other earrings (e.g. Pink Grapefruit Set and Happy Tears Set). She wanted pale blues but I wasn't quite sure what kind of feel she was after so I made three different pairs.

The first one is my personal favourite.

Pebble Earrings

I've used wonderful beads in striated blues - one pebble is a turquoise frosted blue, the other is a creamy very pale matte blue - and combined them with seedbeads in coordinating blues. The ear wires are handformed and hammered and the earrings are about 2" long. These will be £12.


Rose Bud Earrings

In this set I combined lampwork beads in a blue,white and pink rose design with Swarovski beads in pale blues and a very soft rose colour and a few matching seedbeads. The sterling silver ear wires are handformed and hammered and the earrings are about 2" long. These will be £12 now or later from my Etsy shop.



Blue Daisy Earrings

These are so pretty and dainty. Glass flowers are combined with faceted and seed beads in coordinating blues and embellished with little drops. All findings are Sterling silver. The sterling silver ear wires are handformed and hammered and the earrings are about 2" long. These will be £12 now or later from my Etsy shop.

Funky Fuzzy Felts

Here are my first two experiments with wet felting. This is something I've never done before, so I am really proud of them.

Kingfisher Bracelet


The felted beads are two-tone and so are the square glass beads: bright green and teal. I love greens and blues together, but the shades have to be just right. All the findings are sterling silver including the funky silver bead caps. There's a little flower dangle made from a teal lustre flower bead and a teeny tiny bright green frosted Toho bead.


The bracelet is a little longer than my normal medium sized ones, but if required can be shortened, although, saying that, because of the size of the beads it is more comfortable if it is a little larger than you would normal wear it.






Raspberries and Blueberries



This bracelet has also been made with two-tone felt beads, this time in purple and pink. All findings are sterling silver and the beads I used are sugilite and purple jade. I love the deep purple of sugilite, which I'd never seen before I'd bought it.






I have to say wet felting was great fun and I've got some other experiments on the boil including a necklace and bracelet set made completely from felt and silk. I am also about to embark on some needle felting. LOL I can't wait!

Earring Mania and the Cambridge Folk Festival 2008

Sorry guys, I've not had much time, spent it all at the Cambridge Folk Festival last weekend, and then I needed a couple of days to recover and finish some commissions. My Etsy Shop is going fairly well at the moment (knock on wood this is a trend) and I'll have to upload some of the new stuff very soon. (If I tell myself often enough I might actually get round to it).

The folk festival was great fun (check it out here) and I saw some bands which I really, really enjoyed. The ones I liked best (in no particular order) were:

Levellers, Allen Toussant, The Waifs, Richard Hawley, Cherryholmes, Eliza Carthy and most of all Eric Bibb. If you're interested, most of them are presumably on Youtube.com.

The food was great too - I love Jamaican curried goat with plantains. (Sorry, if you're vegetarian.) There was so much different food and all good - from plain chips with cheese (or Cajun spices) and bacon rolls to vegetarian burgers, Greek meze, to Indian, Chinese, Carribean and Japanese food there was something for everyone.

The nice thing about the folk festival is that it works well for families. The kids are safe in the compound and there's a playground where they can hang out whilst their parents are listening to music.

There are 3 stages, one large, one medium and a small club tent. The music fits under a very generous 'folk music' umbrella and everything from country & western to blues and anything else that vaguely fits in is being played.

~ * ~ ~ * ~ ~ * ~

I did manage to make some earrings to go with my Nightblooms flower garland and my Nightblooms bracelet:



I am quite pleased with the way they turned out. I've used 20 gauge half hard sterling silver wire and threaded some of the burgundy and black silk rod on it, interspersed with purple beads and a black matte bead at the bottom. The wires are bent in a sort of oval shape and the silk has been 'feathered'. They look quite stunning on.



Below are some recent earring purchases. The first two I bought recently at the Open Studios here in Cambridge from an artist called Gina Gherardi:

The earrings are both made from handpainted silk petals threaded onto sterling silver wire and interespersed with glass beads. Although my nightblooms earrings were inspired by them, they look very different, where mine are curvy and fluffy these are far sharper and with more precise detail.

Here are the teal ones close up:


Here are the black ones close up:


Finally, I bought the most beautiful Heartleaf earrings at the folk festival. The jewellers had a stall there and I could not possibly resist these earrings:

The detail and the smooth softness of the design is just so beautiful. The craftmanship shows and they are lovely and heavy, not flimsy at all, whilst maintaining the feathery light feel of a real leaf.


Check out the Silver and Stone website for more delectable jewellery.

Ivy Bracelet - Revisited

In the previous post I said I'd show you if I decided to oxidise the ivy bracelet. Well, I did. LOL

I think it looks much better now. The green is more intense and the detail on the ivy leaf is much clearer.



I have no idea how to part with this... LOL However, I did say it was a present and a present it is - not for me, just in case you thought this was my get-out clause....

Sterling Silver Ivy Bracelet

Sorry guys, this bracelet won't be available in my shop. It's a birthday present...

I've been making rather a lot of ivy recently, but all in copper. I thought I am now experienced enough to make one in Sterling silver. In fact, I made three, but only used one for this bracelet. Using three would have made it 'feel' too heavy.




Here's the ivy leaf in detail. You can also see that the clasp is handmade and that I've tried to re-create the little tendrils and shoots you get on ivy in the clasp and the wire the ivy leaf is hanging from.

Here you can see all the different beads I wire wrapped together to make the double bracelet chain: there are lovely frosted deep green Japanese seed beads, bright green coral stick beads, Czech faceted two-tone glass beads and gorgeous Chrysocolla rondelles. Unfortunately, the Chrysocolla looks much darker on the picture than in real life where it is a mix of vibrant greens and dark turquoise and navy blues.

Since the ivy leaf was silver I wanted to show the different greens of the ivy in the chain.


I might lightly oxidise the bracelet to bring out more detail in the leaf and the clasp. If I do, I'll post some more pictures.

Treasure File

I went to a bead fair in Newmarket last weekend and got lots of gorgeous treasures. It was a good day out as we went to a carboot sale in Newmarket afterwards. The next one is in November and well worth going. For a list of bead fairs around the country click here.

My first stop and absolutely irresistible was Lush Lampwork Beads. I could have bought at least half the stall but restrained myself and only bought this:

These lentil beads somehow remind me of Japanese cherry blossoms. They have all sorts of colour flecks in them and are gorgeous and unusual.




I love the simplicity of the black and white swirly theme going on here.




And here are some orphan beads I picked up and just had to have!!! I should only be allowed to go to bead fairs with my hands tied behind my back! LOL



All from Lush Lampwork Beads.


I love unusual semi precious beads. And they don't come much more unusual than these lava cubes. They're a bit rough, which will be fine for earrings, however I may try and tumble some of them with pebbles. I'll let you know how it goes...


Labradorite beads - this string came with graduating sizes, which is unusual because normally such strings are roughly of beads almost the same size. I like the fire within labradorite - without the flashes of colour (blue or coppery gold usually) it would be a fairly unassuming gem.


The green apatite below was irresistible. One of those must-haves. It's a pale green with flashes of gold and copper and deep brown. It's not a perfect or flawless by any means but that makes it dearer to me because it is so much more interesting.

Prehnite is one of my favourite gems. I love it's ghostly lime green glow. It looks totally magical to me.


Cherry red jade, such a lush deep red, it looks good enough to eat!!!


All from Buffys Beads.

Right at the beginning of the fair was the Designer Cabochons stall. I am not that interested in cabochons as you have to make bezels etc for them, something which I haven't tried yet enough to make something worthy of a cabochon of their calibre. However, the beads below caught my eye.

Aren't these two pendants utterly fun? I love the robot and the zombie. They were far too expensive, but again 'must-haves'.


The swirly heart below is so pretty, like the red jade it looks almost edible with the glossy glaze over the top. It reminds me of a jam tart!



Last but by no means least a celadon green Day of The Dead pendant. I love the delicate colour with the flowers and then the contrasting skull. Works for me. Think this might be one I can't bear to part with.

All from Designer Cabochons. Note, these beads are not yet on their website as they are a new line, however if you want anything similar, just contact them.

Below is a selection of the trade beads I picked up. They are so light. The lady at the stall told me that they are made by women in Uganda displaced from their homes by draught and war. The beads are made by rolling paper strips cut from magazines and then coated with resin. It allows the women to send their children to school and feed them. I also got the lovely sterling silver calla lily beads.

From Spoilt Rotten Beads.

There was one more stand at the bead fair which stood out to me because of the quality of the beads and findings: Itchydo. I really liked the unusual beads and the great quality, alas, I'd run out of cash by then....